Davinci's Code - Does it REALLY matter?
DaVinci’s Code
Does it REALLYmatter if Jesus Christ was married?
As recent events with the book “The DaVinci Code” illustrate, the public, and indeed the world – is interested in the life of our Savior Jesus Christ. This best-selling book – which is based almost entirely on assumptions – has brought out those Christians who could be, for lack of a better description be called “Silent Christians”. In this article, I will attempt to put the controversy into a brutally realistic perspective. I will ask the question that few DARE to ask, because I MUST ask it. You can draw your own conclusion from what you believe the answer to be.
I will not belabor the issue of presenting either scriptural quotations in support of my opinion, or so-called “scientific” or “forensic” evidence either pro or con – about the question of whether or not Jesus was indeed married to Mary Magdaline, and whether they conceived a child and a human bloodline resulted from their physical union. The child and the descendants therefrom being called “the bloodline of Jesus”, and often confused with a corruption of the French words “Sangue Royale”[1] (Royal Blood) into “Holy Grail”. I have not seen convincing evidence in the novel, or its references to support either of these beliefs. I will deal only with my own opinions in this piece, and whether you agree with those opinions or not, really doesn’t matter as you’ll see – because celibacy or union in Holy Matrimony was not the qualifier that made Jesus our Savior.
I have nothing against Catholics – I was raised Catholic, and my entire family is STILL Catholic. I am a Born-Again Christian who has also studied Dianetics.[2] One’s religious sect within Christianity – or whether he or she is a Christian or not, does not determine whether or not you’re saved, and I am inclined to believe that because of one very powerful verse of scripture:
“… Every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
The Word doesn’t say “some” or “a few”, or “144,000” – it says “EVERY”. I believe that the Bible does not contradict itself. I believe that “a contradiction” in our own limited understanding, implies that there is something more to the scripture – “spiritual discernment” – than meets the eye. Let’s just say that I cannot bring myself to believe in a God of half-a-victory. Somehow, I feel that the “official” exegesis of the scriptures has not been totally accurate. If God loses a SINGLE soul to Lucifer – then He has not achieved the total victory that the Revelation of John describes – how complete that victory is – at least by our human standards, I believe – will be evident in my lifetime.
We DO know that some words in the 1611 King James translation were not properly translated – and this is primarily due to the influence of the Catholic Church at the time the translation was made. Case in point: Psalm 8: “What is Man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the ANGELS…” it says in the KJV. However, the word the King James translators wrote as “angels” is “Elohim” in the original Hebrew. “Elohim” – a word that is used in Genesis 1:1 which can only be translated as “Gods” (God, masculine, plural).
It is apparent that the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had caused much discomfort in the Catholic Church in 1948. I know many devout Catholics – brothers and sisters in Christ who truly love the Lord, and seek to do His work here on this Earth. On and about the time the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the Catholic Church (Paulist Press) published a book titled, “Psychiatry and Confession – Light on the talking cure of psychoanalysis” – by John A. O'Brien, Ph.D., L.L.D. The University of Notre Dame.
A reproduction of that 31-page pamphlet is available as a FREE PDF DOWNLOAD on my web site:
www.Net4TruthUSA.com/psychiatryandconfession.htm
In the pamphlet, they wrote:
“…Evolution offers an unanswerable argument for the existence of an all-powerful Designer, and is simply God's method of creating.” (Emphasis mine)
I don’t know what they teach in Catholic Schools these days, but apparently, the “infallible” Catholic Church was willing to compromise the faith to validate man’s “science” by the statement:
“We do not advocate the interests of religion when we make the rejection of established scientific evidence a necessary condition for religious faith.”
And so by this unrelated example, we see that the Vatican was, early on, willing to compromise the tenets of their faith to the “science falsely so-called” of Darwinian evolution[3]. And while the congregation is largely true to the faith, the Pope himself, and his subordinates – didn’t waste any time in making those statements. In addition, the question here could be asked, “What does such a statement have to do with the subject ‘Psychiatry and Confession’?” Nothing, apparently. The statement appears totally out of context to the rest of the pamphlet – totally out of context until you realize that the tenets of psychiatry are the polar opposites of the teachings of the scriptures. Psychiatry and belief in “evolution” go hand-in-hand, and these are opposed to everything the Bible teaches us. Indeed, it is opposed to common sense.
The evidence is clear. In order not to lose the majority of the faithful who were being indoctrinated into this State-sponsored Pagan religion, the Catholic Church apparently was willing to say that God used “billions of years” and the “blind chance” of random mutations and molecular evolution to create Man from rocks.
Denial of the facts is a prerequisite for believing in nonsense.
In order to believe a lie….
One first has to STOP believing the truth.
Once you STOP believing the truth,
Then it is possible that you’ll believe anything.
I believe that the Catholic Church has concealed many things about the life of Jesus Christ, which they felt would undermine their control over the faithful. Imagine paying a few dollars to be “absolved” of your sins! Imagine paying the Pope a ransom to have your deceased loved ones released from “Purgatory”[4], when the blood of Christ was sufficient. The Catholic Church preached a non-sequituer for centuries. Perhaps the fact that Jesus was indeed married to Mary Magdaline was one of those things known only to the Gnostics of old, and the privileged few who (in their own eyes) could “handle” the knowledge.
If indeed Jesus was married as the novel – and we must remember – it is a NOVEL and not a work of science or empirical research at all; if indeed Mary Magdaline was, in fact the wife of Our Lord, and if indeed they conceived a child as the novel alleges… I believe it is WONDERFUL. If that is a fact, then it does not affect my faith at all. If it has an effect, it only brings me closer to Him who gave His life for me; for in order to do so – and we must remember that He died WILLINGLY in our place – in order to do so, He not only had to leave a wife whom He loved (and who, no doubt loved Him). He willingly chose to leave this Earth before His child could be born – to say nothing of the brutality by which He was murdered.
As recent events with the book “The DaVinci Code” illustrate, the public, and indeed the world – is interested in the life of our Savior Jesus Christ. This best-selling book – which is based almost entirely on assumptions – has brought out those Christians who could be, for lack of a better description be called “Silent Christians”. In this article, I will attempt to put the controversy into a brutally realistic perspective. I will ask the question that few DARE to ask, because I MUST ask it. You can draw your own conclusion from what you believe the answer to be.
I will not belabor the issue of presenting either scriptural quotations in support of my opinion, or so-called “scientific” or “forensic” evidence either pro or con – about the question of whether or not Jesus was indeed married to Mary Magdaline, and whether they conceived a child and a human bloodline resulted from their physical union. The child and the descendants therefrom being called “the bloodline of Jesus”, and often confused with a corruption of the French words “Sangue Royale”[1] (Royal Blood) into “Holy Grail”. I have not seen convincing evidence in the novel, or its references to support either of these beliefs. I will deal only with my own opinions in this piece, and whether you agree with those opinions or not, really doesn’t matter as you’ll see – because celibacy or union in Holy Matrimony was not the qualifier that made Jesus our Savior.
I have nothing against Catholics – I was raised Catholic, and my entire family is STILL Catholic. I am a Born-Again Christian who has also studied Dianetics.[2] One’s religious sect within Christianity – or whether he or she is a Christian or not, does not determine whether or not you’re saved, and I am inclined to believe that because of one very powerful verse of scripture:
“… Every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
The Word doesn’t say “some” or “a few”, or “144,000” – it says “EVERY”. I believe that the Bible does not contradict itself. I believe that “a contradiction” in our own limited understanding, implies that there is something more to the scripture – “spiritual discernment” – than meets the eye. Let’s just say that I cannot bring myself to believe in a God of half-a-victory. Somehow, I feel that the “official” exegesis of the scriptures has not been totally accurate. If God loses a SINGLE soul to Lucifer – then He has not achieved the total victory that the Revelation of John describes – how complete that victory is – at least by our human standards, I believe – will be evident in my lifetime.
We DO know that some words in the 1611 King James translation were not properly translated – and this is primarily due to the influence of the Catholic Church at the time the translation was made. Case in point: Psalm 8: “What is Man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the ANGELS…” it says in the KJV. However, the word the King James translators wrote as “angels” is “Elohim” in the original Hebrew. “Elohim” – a word that is used in Genesis 1:1 which can only be translated as “Gods” (God, masculine, plural).
It is apparent that the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had caused much discomfort in the Catholic Church in 1948. I know many devout Catholics – brothers and sisters in Christ who truly love the Lord, and seek to do His work here on this Earth. On and about the time the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the Catholic Church (Paulist Press) published a book titled, “Psychiatry and Confession – Light on the talking cure of psychoanalysis” – by John A. O'Brien, Ph.D., L.L.D. The University of Notre Dame.
A reproduction of that 31-page pamphlet is available as a FREE PDF DOWNLOAD on my web site:
www.Net4TruthUSA.com/psychiatryandconfession.htm
In the pamphlet, they wrote:
“…Evolution offers an unanswerable argument for the existence of an all-powerful Designer, and is simply God's method of creating.” (Emphasis mine)
I don’t know what they teach in Catholic Schools these days, but apparently, the “infallible” Catholic Church was willing to compromise the faith to validate man’s “science” by the statement:
“We do not advocate the interests of religion when we make the rejection of established scientific evidence a necessary condition for religious faith.”
And so by this unrelated example, we see that the Vatican was, early on, willing to compromise the tenets of their faith to the “science falsely so-called” of Darwinian evolution[3]. And while the congregation is largely true to the faith, the Pope himself, and his subordinates – didn’t waste any time in making those statements. In addition, the question here could be asked, “What does such a statement have to do with the subject ‘Psychiatry and Confession’?” Nothing, apparently. The statement appears totally out of context to the rest of the pamphlet – totally out of context until you realize that the tenets of psychiatry are the polar opposites of the teachings of the scriptures. Psychiatry and belief in “evolution” go hand-in-hand, and these are opposed to everything the Bible teaches us. Indeed, it is opposed to common sense.
The evidence is clear. In order not to lose the majority of the faithful who were being indoctrinated into this State-sponsored Pagan religion, the Catholic Church apparently was willing to say that God used “billions of years” and the “blind chance” of random mutations and molecular evolution to create Man from rocks.
Denial of the facts is a prerequisite for believing in nonsense.
In order to believe a lie….
One first has to STOP believing the truth.
Once you STOP believing the truth,
Then it is possible that you’ll believe anything.
I believe that the Catholic Church has concealed many things about the life of Jesus Christ, which they felt would undermine their control over the faithful. Imagine paying a few dollars to be “absolved” of your sins! Imagine paying the Pope a ransom to have your deceased loved ones released from “Purgatory”[4], when the blood of Christ was sufficient. The Catholic Church preached a non-sequituer for centuries. Perhaps the fact that Jesus was indeed married to Mary Magdaline was one of those things known only to the Gnostics of old, and the privileged few who (in their own eyes) could “handle” the knowledge.
If indeed Jesus was married as the novel – and we must remember – it is a NOVEL and not a work of science or empirical research at all; if indeed Mary Magdaline was, in fact the wife of Our Lord, and if indeed they conceived a child as the novel alleges… I believe it is WONDERFUL. If that is a fact, then it does not affect my faith at all. If it has an effect, it only brings me closer to Him who gave His life for me; for in order to do so – and we must remember that He died WILLINGLY in our place – in order to do so, He not only had to leave a wife whom He loved (and who, no doubt loved Him). He willingly chose to leave this Earth before His child could be born – to say nothing of the brutality by which He was murdered.
We are led to believe by tradition, that Jesus was a pauper, and had no place to go after a long day of ministering and healing… but what if that isn’t EXACTLY how it was? Suppose Jesus had every reason to remain on this Earth… a loving wife, and a child on the way? What then? Does that not make His sacrifice for us much more…. I don’t know.… poignant, significant, tragic, and absolutely heartbreaking? I believe it does.
The Apocrypha – the books that were not “officially” accepted into the canon of the Bible, have much to say about the childhood of Jesus – a topic of which the New Testament says relatively nothing. The paucity of the New Testament on the childhood of Jesus leads one to wonder WHY the sacred texts of other religions – Islam for example – have much more to say about a man that they consider only to have been a prophet, than the text of a religion that believes that He was the Almighty God incarnate, who came to Earth as a human being in order to sacrifice Himself to save us from our sins. I believe that these texts should be seriously considered by devout Christians. I know I have read them, and my love of Jesus was only made deeper by the reading of them. We have no way of determining whom – if anyone – is descended from Jesus Christ. Such a thing, if it were known, would mean that the enemies of Christ would seek to take the life of His descendants. This would explain the need for secrecy, and the need to keep such a thing out of the general canon of knowledge. We will, I believe, know soon enough.
And so I have to ask my readers the question that is begging.
How would it affect your faith if it were empirically proven – by some method as yet unforeseen – if it were proven beyond any shadow of doubt, that Jesus was married to Mary Magdaline, and had fathered a child before His crucifixion…. How does that – if it were an indisputable fact – How does that affect your faith? Does it affect your confidence in your religion? Religion, after all, is in reality the thing that Jesus railed against the most – religion, by definition, is blind adherence to a set of beliefs, paradigms, or dogmas – a thing which Jesus HATED (See the excellent book “Jesus – Christian Agnostic” by George Geiger on my web site at: www.Net4TruthUSA.com/christianagnostic.htm). I can tell you that it affects MY religion – what little of it that’s left that I can believe in…. But it doesn’t affect my FAITH. The Bible says: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”.
I believe that Jesus was just as much a man as I am. His flesh was just as weak as mine is – He tired, He had to sleep, He was tempted by Satan himself, He became frustrated and angry at the moneychangers, He was compassionate, and we have every reason to believe that He was PASSIONATE. He loved his friend Lazarus, and IF he had a wife and a child on the way – no doubt He loved them with the most enviable of passions. Why would I not love Him – or love Him any less for being just as human as anyone I know? Why would you?
And so, take “The DaVinci Code” for what it is – a NOVEL – and sprinkle a few shakers of “salt” instead of the proverbial “grains”. However, DO consider the possibility that the main premise of the book – that Jesus Christ had married and perhaps fathered a child – and honestly calculate how much more it meant for Him to say to His father “…Not my will, but yours be done.” In the Garden of Gethsamane, when the cup of God’s wrath passed to Him.
He was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities, and the chastisement of my peace was upon Him.[5] He suffered and died in my place. He was condemned for my sins in which He had no part, in order that I could be justified in His righteousness to which I had no right. He suffered the death that was justly mine, in order that I could have the eternal life that is His.[6] – We would do well to remember that; it will help us keep “The DaVinci Code” in its proper perspective.
Godspeed,
Webpastor Dave Todeschini
[1] Or however the heck it is you spell “Royal Blood” in French. J
[2] Dianetics is a science if mental healing that later grew into the Church of Scientology.
[3] To see what you’d have to believe in order to believe in Evolution, get my book “The Book of Neogenesis” – available on my web site at www.Net4TruthUSA.com/neogenesis.htm
[4] There is absolutely NO Biblical support for the concept of “Purgatory” – it was a total fabrication of the Catholic Church.
[5] From the Book of Isaiah.
[6] From “Desire of Ages” by Ellen G. White.
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